Blood Is Thicker
by Miss Mysty
Summary: They say blood is thicker than water, but over the years, Masamune has started to wonder if his relationship with his mother is worth saving.


Blood Is Thicker

There are some chance encounters that you have to wonder about. For Takano Masamune, that was meeting up with his mother for the first time in seven years. He didn't particularly care about the woman. Sure, she had done him a courtesy and given birth to him, but he didn't have many warm memories of her. Even before the big fighting started between her and her former husband (a man Masamune had stopped calling father a long time ago) the atmosphere in his home had always been tense.

At the age of twenty-seven, though, he had stopped resenting both of them. It had been part of the process of growing up when he finally pulled himself out of his college funk and realized, with Yokozawa's help, that he couldn't just coast through life half-drunk like he'd been doing for two years.

Of course, meeting your mother outside a bar when she hasn't even talked to you in seven years is kind of a mood breaker even if you do have a completely trashed Onodera Ritsu hanging off your arm like it's the only thing keeping him tethered to the Earth. In retrospect, Masamune thought that having an ornery, drunk man hanging off him didn't help any case he may have made to his mother that he was doing perfectly fine on his own. It's not like he could help it, though; the Emerald men had gone drinking to celebrate the end of the cycle. They didn't usually do such a thing, but it was January, so the special Valentine's Day issue of Emerald had been in the works. When Takano was in high school, Valentine's Day hadn't been something to even think about. He hadn't even been dating Ritsu during Valentine's Day. As a shojo manga editor, though, it was the biggest holiday of the year.

The other Emerald editors had left long ago, and Masamune had been ready to haul Ritsu home when he saw her walking by the bar. He paused, not even able to act like he didn't recognize her. Even if he hadn't seen her in years, he'd recognize his own mother. They might've been able to get by, though, if Ritsu hadn't noticed.

"Who's that?" he asked, his voice overly-loud. Masamune tensed, but Ritsu was acting like he hadn't just yelled out in the middle of the sidewalk. He watched as the woman stopped and turned around to look at them.

They stared at each other for what had to be half a minute. Masamune almost expected her to say something, but then she just turned away like nothing had happened.

"No one," Masamune said, his eyes following his mother as she walked along the street. She had plastic bags in both hands, so it seemed she had been shopping. What she was doing out shopping that late, though, he had no idea. Then again, he probably didn't know his mother that well.

Ritsu huffed, finally seeming to realize that Masamune was supporting him. "Stupid Takano-san, let me go," he said, pushing away. Masamune obliged, but the moment Ritsu had to support himself, he fell to the sidewalk.

"You were saying?" he asked, but he made no moves to help Ritsu up.

"Stupid Takano-san."

Masamune was late to work the next morning. He knew his underlings would probably chew him out for it, considering all the times he had thrown rulers and other, pointier, objects at them for walking into the office late. He was of the opinion, however, that he deserved it. Also, when he glanced around the office, he saw he wasn't the only one late. Ritsu wasn't in his chair, which was odd, because Masamune had heard him leave over an hour ago.

"Oi, where's Onodera?" Masamune asked, trying his best to sound annoyed.

"His father is visiting Marukawa today and asked Ricchan to show him around." Kisa was all smiles over at his desk, though he usually was at the start of a new cycle. Sometimes, when Masamune was still feeling hung-over from the cycle (or perhaps drinking, though he did that a lot less these days) he wanted to punch Kisa in that young-looking face of his. That, however, was unprofessional, as Yokozawa had pointed out the one time Masamune confided it in him.

Well, there was also the matter that Kisa freely called him Ricchan, with no complaints from him, while Masamune was relegated to 'Onodera,' simply because calling him Ritsu would raise eyebrows.

Masamune put on his best annoyed expression and trundled over to his desk, looking around the office. Everyone else was working, of course, though he had the feeling that they had been goofing-off until they saw him approaching the office. He'd have to find an excuse to go wandering around Marukawa later and bump into Ritsu and his father, but right then, escaping the office didn't seem like an option.

"I'm fine here, Papa, I don't see why you're so worried."

Masamune's ears perked up, although his highly-developed Onodera radar was what alerted him to the fact that Ritsu was leading his father back to Emerald's offices. The only thing on his mind, though, was that he found it rather cute that he called his father 'Papa.' It was unexpected, when he thought of the gruff and hardly emotionally available Onodera Ritsu.

"Well of course you are, Ritsu, but I was somewhat surprised when I asked for you and found out they've thrown you into the shojo manga department," came another voice, obviously his father. "How in the world did that happen?"

Ritsu was in the doorway of the Emerald office by that point, and he looked like he was about to say something extremely insensitive about Marukawa's general affairs department. When he saw Masamune sitting there, though, he froze up. Onodera-papa had to push past him with a puzzled expression. "Ritsu?" he asked, looking around.

Ritsu gulped and smiled. "Papa, this is Emerald's head editor, Takano Masamune." Masamune wasn't sure why, but Ritsu refused to look him in the eye as his father walked through the office. He had picked a good time to visit, because the entire place was clean as a whistle, sparkling almost as much as your average page of a shojo manga maiden confession.

Masamune took off his glasses as he bowed. "You're the head of Onodera Publishing, I assume?" he said.

"Yes, of course," Onodera-papa replied, bowing as well. "You must be the one who snatched up my son."

Masamune coughed, almost unable to stop himself from spouting out something that had to do with a meaning to that phrase that Onodera-papa surely wasn't aware of. "Actually, sir, I wasn't there at his interview. Marukawa allocates new employees wherever they're needed." Then he glanced over at Ritsu as he took the edge of his shirt and cleaned some dust off his glasses. "Your son is a good worker, though. I'm glad to have him."

Ritsu perked up at that, seeming surprised to hear Masamune actually say something good about him. Onodera-papa seemed satisfied with this, because he nodded, said something about coming back at lunch time, and went on his way. Ritsu, for his part, sighed and slumped down in his chair.

"What's your problem?" Masamune asked, walking up to Ritsu and putting a hand down on the man's desk.

Ritsu gulped, still not looking at him. "Thank you," he said.

"For what?"

"For saying that to my father," he said. He looked Masamune in the eye for a split second before averting his gaze again.

"It's the truth," Masamune said, shrugging and turning away.

"Yes but… Papa keeps saying he's worried about me since I left the company," Ritsu said, and he started busying himself with some paperwork on his desk. "I guess I'll always be a kid to him."

Masamune didn't reply to this, instead just going back to his desk and sitting down. But then he brought out his cell phone and considered it. He still had his mother's phone number in his contacts; it hadn't changed over the years, even if he never actually used it.

He shook his head and flipped his phone shut before even bringing it up, though. Maybe another time.


End file.
